Some SEO Questions from a newbie...

Hello All!

Was wondering if somebody could help answer some of these questions for me. I've done my own little 'crash course' into SEO and Internet Marketing this week. I'm confident (ish) on most areas, but have stumbled on some questions which I need to clarify. (Sorry if some of these sound stupid) but here goes :

1. Do Follow and No Follow Links - I know how to see if a website is 'Do follow' or 'No follow' but when gaining backlinks, do I always have to type in either the 'do follow' or 'no follow' code followed by the backlink? For every backlink? I know I should do this for my own blog, and for other blog comments, but what about article directories, guest blogging, directories etc?

2.) I understand that in theory, posting on 'do follow' Auto approved blogs isn't good because it will probably be hit by scam. However, it I wrote some quality comments related to the niche and added a backlink to my own blog instead of my main page, would this be ok?

3.) How do I make my own personal blog, non- auto approved and no follow? Is it by installing the plugin Akismet?

4.) I'm currently having a website built, and I'm currently looking at Plugin's for my WordPress blog. . My web designer hasn't mentioned if he is going to install any Social Media plugin's.for my blog. However on the blog page, he has included most of the social media links at the top. Do I still need to install a social media plugin, or can it be done manually without a special plugin(I'm abit worried as my designer doesn't seem to know much about these plugin's but has added these links for me anyway??

Simply put.... Links you give yourself are near useless if they are followed or no followed..... Blog comment links are mostly a waste of effort… You need a better strategy to get links… I recommend you start with this thread http://forums.seochat.com/link-popularity-43/where-do-you-find-your-link-opportunities-450572.html

Word press blogs allow you to set those things easily. No plugins are normally necessary in relation to other peoples comments on your blog… Social media only works if you have something people are interested in enough to use the social media stuff. Most peoples blogs get no/little traffic so social media plugins are of no use. Is your blog going to be interesting enough to have other people wanting to recommend it to there friends?

Hi Alison,
1. The best way to check out if the site you are on does do/no follow backlinks is by right clicking on a blank area of the page and click on "View Page Source" (may differ a bit from browser to browser - I am on Google Chrome). Press the "ctrl" key and then "f" to pull up the find box. after which type in "nofollow". If the links going out to others websites are no follow links it will show.

2.) This isn't something I would recommend. Have you considered doing guest blogging?

3.) Akismet is a plugin that allows you to filter spammy comments (much like the ones you're wanting to do in question #2). If your site is built on a WordPress platform, simply create a page and name it blog, then associate that page as your blog page in your admin options. You can find more directions on this by searching Google. (or you can message me and I might be able to help)

4.) It's hard to tell without seeing your website. Plugins are great and we have a series that we recommend. In terms of sharing your site socially, I really like the plugin ShareThis (all one word).

Good luck, SEO is fun just make sure it's done the right way. Black hat never lasts long. If you need anymore info, you can visit me at kayzoe.com!